Graphic Novel Review: Inheritance

Inheritance by Charlaine Harris and Christopher Golden, Cemetery Girl #2

 She calls herself Calexa Rose Dunhill. She has been living - hiding out - in Dunhill Cemetery ever since someone left her there to die. She has no idea who wants her dead or why, but she isn't about to hand around for her would-be-killer to finish the job.

Despite her self-imposed isolation among the deceased, Calexa's ability to see spirits and the memories she receives from them guarantees she'll never be alone. The only living people she interacts with are Kelner, the cemetery's cantankerous caretaker, and Lucinda Cameron, an elderly woman who lives in an old Victorian house across the street. With their friendship, Calexa has regained a link to the world beyond tombstones and mausoleums.

Until the night she witnesses a murder that shatters her life: a life now under a police microscope, as their investigation threatens to uncover Calexa's true identity . . 

Last year Jo Fletcher Book released their first graphic novel, The Pretenders by Charlaine Harris and Christopher Golden. This first book was marketed as the new Buffy and in many ways it lived up to it's expectations there was also something new in it. The concept of a young girl featuring as a talksperson for ghosts to talk to their living friend and family. The Inheritance is the second book in the series and once again doesn't hesitate to throw you into a pacing story. 

The Pretenders introduced us to Calexa Rose Dunhill, also better know as The Cemetery Girl. In the first book she was left for dead in the Dunhill Cemetery and uncovered some new powers that she had gotten. At the end of the first book Calexa made a new friend, that of the old women living across the streets, Lucinda. There bond has grown so much that Lucinda has invited her to come sleep in her house. But it seems that it doesn't take long for trouble to find Calexa once more. On a terrible night someone sneaks into Lucinda's home and brutally murders here, Calexa who has gotten streetsmart when she lived on her own fends of the burglar. But now Calexa is once again on her own...

Perhaps both as a blessing and a curse, the ghost of Lucinda returns and enters Calexa, there is unfinished business. Because who killed Lucinda and why? There are multiple persons that could have interest. But what is the actual motive? Calexa has to risk her own life to get to the bottom of this. And it doesn't get made any easier now that other friends that she made also have their lives hanging in the balance. 

I do wonder if this is all just coincidence or that there is something bigger at play here. When you look at what happens in the end you can only just think and wonder  what will happen next and why Calexa was chosen and more over. With what she was injected in the first book and why she was left to die. 

As for the character transformation, the beginning of Inheritance really shows a happy Calexa, she has someone to rely on and to help here. Something completely different from the beginning of the first book. I liked this Calexa and was actually shocked when I read that Lucinda got murdered. She falls back into her old pattern becoming the angsty Calexa, but she has learned and soon build up enough courage to once again approach the living that can help here. A very nice transformation.

Inheritance opens up a way full of possibilities. I am very curious to see how Calexa's story will unfold. I hope to see more of that man...